.Political Tidbits is the prestigious column of Belinda Olivares-Cunanan that ran for 25 continuous years in the op-ed page of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, the newspaper that she helped put up with its multi-awarded founder, the legendary Eugenia Duran-Apostol, in December 1985, just two months before the EDSA Revolution.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

P-Noy’s P70, 000 bail forked out for new Comelec Commissioner Grace Padaca, however well-intentioned, has to be construed as bribery that compromises her independence---so crucial in the 2013 elections. Recalling canonization of Opus Dei’s Founder, St. Josemaria Escriva, by Pope John Paul II at the Vatican ten years ago today.

New Comelec Commissioner Grace Padaca

President Noynoy seems
to be deliberately courting impeachment (fully aware, perhaps, that Congress is
securely in his pocket). First, P-Noy, who is LP Chair, pays from his personal funds the P70, 000 bail of former Gov. Grace Padaca whom he has just appointed
as the 7th Commissioner of the poll body. There’s no other way to
look at this bail that P-Noy, however well-intentioned, forked out except as bribery of his new appointee. This early it compromises
Padaca's independence as Comelec Commissioner---so crucial in view of the
coming mid-term elections that P-Noy's Liberal Party obviously intends to sweep.

Reading about
how she was in near-tears as she thanked P-Noy profusely for her recent
appointment and his bail for her, one is left to wonder if
Padaca’s senses haven’t taken leave of her. How can she fail to understand that
the bail bond he posted for her is unacceptable in her new position?

She stressed that
she’s out to institute reforms in the Comelec. This is not hard to believe as
she came into the governor’s post in Isabela with the reputation of an
idealist. But how can that be possible now at the Comelec, if her independence
has been compromised from the start with this debt of gratitude to the President? This also seriously puts into question her sense of judgment in the Comelec that's supposed to be an INDEPENDENT CONSTITUTIONAL BODY.

XXX

In fact, as if to
stress how important it is to appoint Padaca to the Comelec, P-Noy even
ordered DILG Secretary Mar Roxas--- president-on-leave of the Liberal Party but
who remains so visible in LP political gatherings such as in Pampanga
recently---to accompany her in posting that bail at the Sandiganbayan.

But aside from
infringing on the independence of the Comelec, these Palace moves may also be
construed as undue interference of the Executive Branch in the workings of a
co-equal and independent branch, the Judiciary (represented here by the
Sandiganyaban).

XXX

Not that the
administration is uniformly efficient when it comes to carrying out warrants
from the courts. There is clearly a
double standard when it comes to allies of P-Noy, vs. those perceived to be enemies.

Contrast its dragging
its feet in the case of Padaca, who joined the LP some months back, after being
affiliated for some time with the movement called “Kaya Natin!” that fully
backed P-Noy in the impeachment case vs. Chief Justice Renato Corona earlier
this year (which counted as members LP candidate for governor in Pampanga Ed Panlilio, and Harvey Keh of the Ateneo School of Government). The warrant of arrest was issued against Padaca by
Sandiganbayan last May, but until now---five months later---it has not been served by the DILG.

Contrast this to the
lightning speed with which the warrant of arrest for plunder was served on former
President GMA by a phalanx of police officers---a day after her son, party-list
Rep. Mikey Arroyo, filed her certificate of candidacy at the Comelec. GMA would doubtless have been put behind bars immediately, had it not been that doctors at Veterans
Hospital ruled her to be too weak to undergo imprisonment and insisted on her
continued stay in the hospital.

XXX

To complicate the issue, in today’s Manila
Standard P-Noy was quoted as publicly clearing Padaca of the malversation
charge filed against her in the graft court as governor of Isabela last
May. P-Noy says that Gov. Padaca's approval of a P25 million loan for a rice
hybrid project to an NGO, even though done WITHOUT BIDDING, actually helped
farmers obtain cheaper credit facility.

The assumption in his
remark is that if something is for the good of the people, it’s okay even if
the procedure taken is twisted or open to charges of graft and corruption.

XXX

This is a dangerous
assumption for the President to make. The administration recently sued the
former PCSO board in GMA’s time, led by General Manager Rosario Uriarte, for
plunder, together with the former President. But using P-Noy’s argument to
justify the short-cuts Padaca resorted to in the multi-million loan---for which she was ordered arrested by the Sandiganbayan---what would now
prevent Uriarte et al. from invoking the same argument: that their move
benefitted a wide segment of the population? Never mind if they may have
resorted to short-cut of procedures or even actual manipulation of funds.

Then too, P-Noy, through
his public clearing of Padaca of anomaly, is further strengthening his
interference of the judiciary. How can the Sandiganbayan now proceed with her malversation case?

Many people are
wondering WHAT'S HAPPENING at the Palace? Where are his advisers?

XXX

St. Josemaria Escriva

Today is a red-letter day for Opus
Dei, for this marks the 10th anniversary of the canonization of its
revered founder, Msgr. Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer. Ten years ago today, my
husband and I were among the huge throng from many nations around the world
that filled the entire St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in Italy, all the way
to the Tiber River---one of the biggest crowds to ever be assembled there.
Under clear blue skies and crisp autumn weather, the late Pope John Paul II
officiated at the unforgettable rituals that raised Opus Dei’s founder to the
altar of saints of the Catholic Church.

The official seal of approval by the
Pope stamped on St. Josemaria Escriva’s life of virtue, which the Church ruled he
had practiced to a “heroic degree,” was its way of putting to rest the
controversies that had hounded Escriva’s 73 years on earth and the 84-year old
“Work of God” now found in over 80 countries around the world, had stirred.

XXX

In preaching what St. Josemaria
called the “universal call to holiness of the children of God,” he stressed
constantly that it was not only those who sought life in the convent or
monastery who could come close to God and be holy. Ordinary men and women very much in the world could also come close to Him by sanctifying their work and
doing it with both human perfection, through the excellence of their work, and
Christian perfection, by doing it for love of God and in service to others.

This precept dovetails neatly with
the work ethic demanded by our modern-day world, which is probably why the Spanish-born St. Josemaria, who died in June 1975 in Opus Dei's central office in Rome, has
come to be known as the “Saint for contemporary times.” Thus, over the decades
since Opus Dei’s founding on October 2, 1928, the Feast of the Guardian Angels, those responding to Escriva’s challenge have
come from all professions and undertakings: from bank presidents to teachers, soldiers and nurses, as well as cooks, domestics and farmhands---working people all.

As I wrote ten years ago in my
column, one pilgrim who sat gazing at St. Josemaria’s photo hanging from the
imposing façade of St. Peter’s during his canonization, commented that it was the
first time he had ever seen the photo of a saint with eyeglasses. That quip is also a succinct
commentary: St. Josemaria, who had once dabbled in journalism and held a doctorate degree in civil law from a famous university in Madrid, apart from being a
priest, is truly a saint for our times.

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About Bel Cunanan

Belinda Olivares-Cunanan is a veteran journalist with 25 years of experience writing a political column for the Philippine Daily Inquirer. She is a Rotary Club of Manila Hall of Fame awardee for journalism. She has also received the Distinguished Alumna Award from her elementary and high school alma mater, the College of the Holy Spirit, and the Alumni Association Professional Award for Journalism from the University of the Philippines (UP).